Oklo NYSE:OKLO rose 3.58% and X-Energy NASDAQ:XE gained 3.04% premarket after Bloomberg reported that both advanced reactor developers are joining a $200 million Trump administration program to accelerate power plant development for AI data centers. The initiative, which also includes Microsoft (MSFT) and Nvidia (NVDA), could be announced as soon as Wednesday at an Energy Department AI energy summit, according to a document seen by the news agency.
The program's goals include sharp reductions in the time needed to design, license and build new plants, along with cuts to the staffing required to run them. Several national laboratories and institutions including the University of Texas at Austin are set to share $60 million over three years. The Energy Department declined to comment.
The push reflects how far electricity supply has become the constraint on AI expansion. Nvidia and OpenAI have both flagged power limits as an obstacle to US adoption, while data center growth has driven consumer electricity bills higher, an issue gaining political weight ahead of November's midterms. The Energy Department estimates 300 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity will be needed by 2050. No advanced reactor has yet operated at commercial scale.